


midnight monologue

by Molnija



Category: Free!
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, but probably plays later when everything is sorted out ya feel, could be read as platonic but like. it's hiyori. lbr, i have no idea how to tag this, if kyoani won't make him happy i'll fuckin do it myself, please don't expect anything deep i'm just here to make them smile, starts out poetic and then it turns dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-28 23:39:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15717435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molnija/pseuds/Molnija
Summary: Hiyori doesn't have a lot of stories to tell, but …





	midnight monologue

**Author's Note:**

> that title is a lie. if anything it's a post-midnight dialogue. but that's not catchy.
> 
> look literally all I want is for these two to be happy but especially Hiyori fuck man please give him like twenty group hugs he needs them he needs friends he needs to be aPPRECIATED-- I wrote this with the intention of making him happy but then it didn't want to turn into that and then it turned into it anyway so I guess in the end the winner is me after all? writing is weird.
> 
> after e6 (aka the episode that 1. killed me and 2. cemented Hiyori as my fav), I actually find Hiyori quite comfortable to write. I mean, this is more light-hearted so it's different anyway, but it seems constantly thinking about him has given me a pretty solid foundation to work with, lol. still, I've never written Free! before, I'm just the volleyball girl, so bear with me please °^° idk if I'm gonna write much more for them, I never really felt the need to write (or read for that matter) fic of Free!, I just really wanna make them sMIL E ; waiting (im)patiently for everyone to get along in canon please KyoAni be kind to me
> 
> ... everything in this tag is so sad or thoughtful and then there's me. providing pointless floof since 1998. that being said though, if you think a certain thing has a deeper meaning, it probably does this time around. I think about Hiyori a lot. like a lot a lot
> 
> anyway, enjoy! if you want to! please! I can't force you to but I'd be happy if you did ~

An empty sheet of paper – a couple hundred words left unsaid. Then again, they never really mattered in the first place; even if he had any clue how to capture them on paper in thick dark blue ink, they’d most likely go unread anyway.

For someone who likes to read, Hiyori doesn’t have a lot of stories to tell.

On the rare occasion that he does manage to form a few somewhat coherent sentences, they always end up being about the same thing, so he never really tries. It just makes him all embarrassed and he can’t stand reading over it once he’s done.

And yet he’s sitting here, in the secluded corner of a dark yet homely café he’s never tried before, hot chocolate on the table in front of him right next to the stationery he specifically bought for this very reason, with a pen in his hand and his eyes glued to the blinding white paper as if staring at it could make this write itself.

Because there is absolutely no way he could ever convey what he wants to. Because if the words for this even exist, they’re ones he has no access too. Perhaps ones he read once, twice, a few million times but the meaning of which still escapes him.

In another situation, he might feel stupid. Right now he just feels like he’s missing something.

It _is_ stupid, though. He’s a literature student. Technically he knows the ins and outs of how to structure a story. The only reason he can’t actually _do_ it is – well, what is it?

When he thinks of subjects to write about, there’s exactly two that come to mind, and those are irrevocably linked. To be fair, the addressee would probably like one of them at least, but Hiyori couldn’t write that without making it awkward, either.

But what does he really know beyond those two things?

Somewhere in the background, he thinks he can hear a bell ring. Maybe someone came in, this is a café after all, but it’s still a bit surprising. Last time he checked it was just past midnight and this place is pretty hidden away as it is. It was completely empty when he came here.

He doesn’t raise his head to try and catch a look. Frankly, he doesn’t really care, and he’s still mulling over this non-existent story. As long as they don’t bother him it’s alright.

Now that he’s noticed it though, their footsteps on the wooden floor seem too loud. Distracting. _Tap, tap, tap_ , could you just sit down already, every table but Hiyori’s is free—

“Oh.”

He freezes.

Before he’s even looking at him, he’s switched on the brightest smile he can muster. Considering the time of day and the fact that he was caught completely by surprise, he can only assume he’s doing a less than average job of it.

But then, slowly, their eyes meet, and he looks equally as confused.

“Ikuya,” he says, and it sounds less like a name and more like what you’d get if you crammed the idea of _normally I’d be very happy to see you but right now you have terrible timing_ into a single word. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” His voice sounds like always – a bit raspier, maybe; what has he been doing? – but there’s a certain sense of worry in his eyes (or maybe it’s just the dim lighting making it look that way because Hiyori likes to pretend).

He points at the empty paper. “Homework.” It’s not a lie. Just because the prompt is ‘a gifted story to a loved one’ doesn’t make it anything else, even if it’s not being graded.

“Still? That’s unlike you.” Ikuya hesitates, glancing at the empty chair on his side, and Hiyori gestures to it. Doing anything else would just seem suspicious. He has no need to send him away, other than that he really can’t focus now. As if he could before.

He’s being considerate pulling out the chair, careful not to make much noise. There’s nobody here they could bother, so it’s probably an instinctive gesture rather than anything else.

“Ah, I didn’t really have time until now …” That, however, is a lie. He’s been thinking about this for almost a week. “The hot chocolate here is nice, you should try it.”

Ikuya looks at him for just a little too long before cocking his head ever so slightly. “You didn’t ask me what I’m doing here. Normally you’d lecture me on needing sleep.”

He’s right. Everything’s a bit different today, it seems. “What _are_ you doing here?” His faux nonchalance is shaky, too.

He doesn’t seem to notice, though. Hiyori can’t decide if he’s relieved or if it hurts him a bit. “The neighbours are having a party. I can’t sleep with that noise.”

“At this time?” He knew Ikuya’s neighbours are rowdy sometimes, but this is a new low. “You should complain about it.”

“That’s too much of a bother. It’s only tonight anyway.”

“But you need rest!” Their conversation is interrupted by the waitress – presumably the only one working right now – and Ikuya orders a hot chocolate before replying.

“I’ll take a hotel room. Either way, even if I complain they probably won’t stop.” He doesn’t give Hiyori any time to reply, just nods at the sheet of paper. “You don’t seem to be getting much done either.”

It’s like the empty whiteness is mocking him. In some way, though, this is preferable – if he’d already written something down and Ikuya had caught a glimpse of it—

He doesn’t know what it would have been, but he knows it would have been embarrassing. Of course he’d dedicate his story to Ikuya, that doesn’t mean he ever has to read it.

“I have a hard time coming up with anything,” he decides to admit. It’s pretty obvious anyway. “It’s for my creative writing class.”

“You’re taking creative writing?” He can’t tell if he’s genuinely interested or just confused because Hiyori hasn’t brought it up until now.

“Unfortunately.” A small laugh escapes him. Unfortunately indeed. This class has been hell. He assumed it’d be a nice change of pace until he figured out he has absolutely no talent for it. “What would you like to read about?”

The question just kind of slipped out, but he supposes it’s convenient to ask. This is a story for Ikuya after all, maybe he has better ideas.

Without a second of hesitation, Ikuya looks up at him with unusually bright eyes and says, not a trace of joking in his voice, “Narwhals.”

“W-what?”

“Narwhals,” he repeats, still entirely serious. “I mean, they’re like underwater unicorns, right? That’s interesting. Why do they have that horn? Doesn’t it get in the way? It makes no sense. I’d like to read a story about narwhals.”

Those question coupled with the complete deadpan tone are too much – he can’t hold back his laughter no matter how hard he tries. Maybe it’s because it’s past midnight and he hasn’t gotten enough sleep last night either, but somehow, it’s incredibly funny to him right now.

“I didn’t think,” he forces out between bursts of laughter, “you liked _Narwhals_ of all things— Also isn’t it a tusk, not a horn?”

“Tusk, horn, same thing.” He seems a bit pouty about it, which is both cute and somehow even funnier. In the back of his mind, Hiyori’s wondering why Ikuya hasn’t called him out on laughing at him yet – even though he’s not laughing _at_ him, okay, maybe he kind of is, but in a good way, because Ikuya is so damn adorable sometimes and occasionally it catches him off guard, even though he should really be used to it by now.

But when he’s finally calmed down enough to say “alright, I’ll write a story about Narwhals” without having to start over three times, he sees a faint smile on Ikuya’s lips, one reminiscent of times long past that makes his heart skip a beat.

The two topics he usually defaults to – of course, it’s Ikuya, it’s always Ikuya, and with him The Little Mermaid – he doubts he can truly get rid of them even when he writes about … Narwhals.

Because Hiyori doesn’t have a lot of stories to tell, but he could talk about Ikuya for hours. Maybe that’s not his place but he can’t help doing it anyway, thinking of him more than he perhaps should be, and in this very moment it feels just right.

**Author's Note:**

> why narwhals? because they look funny. that's all there is to it. that's the one part that doesn't have a deeper meaning
> 
> tumblr: http://toono-hiyori.tumblr.com/ please donate happy Hiyoris and yell with me about that one swimming anime that breaks your heart a whole bunch


End file.
